Pit Stop Radio News

After a wild three-car battle over the final four laps, 17-year-old Ryan Robinson was declared the winner of night one of the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s Midwest Season Opener at the Jacksonville Speedway after teammate Tucker Klaasmeyer was ruled to have jumped the final re-start with four laps remaining. Klassmeyer was placed back one position to second and Logan Seavey was third, giving the Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) Toyota team a sweep of the podium positions.

The victory is the first national feature win for Robinson and the ninth for a Toyota driver in POWRi competition this season. In addition, Toyotas have now won 14 of the 16 national midget feature races run in 2018.

Seavey and Klaasmeyer started the feature next to one another on the front row with Klaasmeyer getting the early jump into the lead. Seavey maintained the second spot through the early going, while BOSS Factory Racing’s Andrew Felker ran third.

Seavey would eventually use lapped traffic to take over the lead on lap 11. Shortly afterward a caution flew and Seavey pulled away on the re-start as the action heated up behind him. Klaasmeyer gave up the second spot briefly to Alex Bright, but used a slider to retake the position with Bright in third and Robinson having moved up to fourth.

A caution on lap 20 bunched the field once more and it would be the beginning of a wild final 11 circuits with Klaasmeyer momentarily taking the lead on a slider only to have Seavey going hard on the cushion to go back around him. Bright took advantage of the battle in front of him to slip by Klaasmeyer for second as Robinson joined the hunt. The three dueled for the runner-up spot until Bright hit the wall, flipping his car.

A final caution waived with just four laps remaining. At that point, it became a three-car battle for the win between the KKM Toyota drivers with Seavey leading as the green flag waved before Klaasmeyer took the lead with a slider in turn one, only to see Seavey return the favor heading into three. The duo traded the lead throughout the next two laps with Robinson also in the middle of the fray, using a slider to work past Seavey for second on lap 29.

Klaasmeyer then made contact with the wall while holding off his teammates, but recovered quickly to hold off Robinson at the checkered flag for what appeared to be the win with Seavey finishing third. Shortly afterward, POWRi officials announced that Klaasmeyer had jumped the final start, giving the win to series point leader Robinson.

“Not exactly the way I wanted to get my first win,” said Robinson afterward. “We’ve been fast all year and running up front every weekend shows what a great car Keith Kunz and Big Al Scroggins put together. All three of us up front and throwing sliders was really fun. I hope the fans enjoyed it.”

Somewhat overlooked with all the action upfront was an impressive drive by Jason McDougal, who went from the ninth starting position up to fourth in his first race in the Petry Motorsports Toyota after being announced as the team’s new driver earlier in the week. Also earning top-10 finishing positions were Holly Shelton in sixth, Felker in seventh and Tanner Carrick, last week’s winner in Wheatland, in ninth.

Night two of the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s Midwest Season Opener is set for Saturday night at Macon (Ill.) Speedway.

POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League Standings: 1-Robinson-2470; 2- Klaasmeyer-2430;3-Seavey-1960; 4– Daum-1900; 5- Felker-1730; 6. Miller-1710; 7-Sarff-1530; 8t- Neuman-1420; 8t- Shelton-1420; 10-T. Carrick-1420